Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowship

Job Description

Description

Applications for the 2025-2026 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper fellowship are open until March 31, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. PST. Meet our 2024-25 fellows and see their work, and learn about 2023-24 fellows and their work. Plus, here’s a look at the work of our 2022-23 inaugural fellowship cohort.

Named for the “mother of African-American journalism,” the program was launched in 2022 to provide recent graduates, mid-career alums and former students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities with yearlong, salaried fellowships with full benefits in reporting, audience engagement and news product management. Learn more about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper here.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellows will spend a year working in reporting, audience engagement and product management roles with full-time salaries and benefits, made possible by the generous support of Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden. Fellows are embedded in their respective teams and receive mentorship and professional development. We also provide career coaching to prepare fellows for their path after their fellowship.

Our cohorts include three reporting fellows, one audience engagement fellow and one product management fellow.

Fellows in the reporting track should expect to gain more experience in:

• Covering issues deeply through original reporting, researched context and nuanced framing
• Pitching stories they want to follow through the lens of equity and representation
• Identifying and developing areas of expertise within their reporting
• Exploring storytelling across digital platforms and in-person events
• Centering the voices and experiences of people on the margins, who are often affected the most at the intersections of gender and policy

See stories reported on by our 2023/2024 and 2022/2023 fellows.

Fellows in the audience engagement track should expect to gain more experience in:

• Finding, pitching, producing and reporting out audience-centric stories that live first and foremost on off-platform channels like Instagram. For example, our callout for Black country music fans, or our roundup of Women’s History Month quotes from our current fellow cohort
• Optimizing and distributing journalism across platforms — such as on our site, via search, on social and in newsletters — to meet different audiences where they are
• Crafting accurate, compelling headlines, social and newsletter copy, and visuals on deadline
• Working with different roles across editorial, audio, event and product teams to execute on audience engagement projects
• Using key newsroom platforms and tools to draft and schedule social media posts, update our homepage, monitor real-time metrics and trending topics, and produce an article or newsletter

Fellows in the product management track should expect to gain more experience in:

• Using design thinking to generate product ideas that meet audience needs, align with our mission and advance business goals
• Defining new features and experiments to test on our products, including our website, newsletters and aggregation apps such as Apple News
• Writing requirements and working with our technology team to test and ship products
• Measuring and defining the impact of our features and experiments
• Conducting user research and synthesizing learnings
• Contribute to roadmapping and quarterly planning
• Communicating goals and plans with stakeholders and triaging their feedback

The fellowship year kicks off in the fall with an opening retreat for new fellows, held in conjunction with a 19th event in a different city every year. Both new and outgoing fellows have the chance to connect and community build. New fellows have sessions that set them up for the year and beyond, like building influence and managing up, while outgoing fellows celebrate the end of their fellowship.

• A year of learning. In addition to being embedded on their respective teams, fellows experience a robust curriculum of relevant training throughout the fellowship, shaped in tandem with the cohort’s input. Previous workshops have included coping with trauma and burnout, networking, negotiating salary, revamping résumés and portfolios, tips from hiring managers, mental wellness and financial literacy. Trainers have hailed from The New York Times, American Press Institute, KHN, WHYY, AJ+, Poynter and more.
• Growing your journalism network. The 19th supports fellows’ career progression by coordinating networking opportunities for fellows with journalists and hiring managers in media throughout the year via networking happy hours and hiring manager panels. The 19th covers one year of membership in the National Association of Black Journalists as well as fellows’ attendance to NABJ’s annual convention and career fair during their fellowship year.
• Legendary retreats. Fellows have an opening retreat at the start of the fellowship year to prepare them for the year ahead. As part of the retreat, they also attend a 19th event. At the midpoint of the fellowship, usually in early spring, fellows have a midyear retreat in Philadelphia where program namesake Frances Ellen Watkins Harper once lived. This retreat focuses on job preparation with resume and portfolio workshops, a networking happy hour and more. In late spring, fellows join the rest of The 19th staff at an all-staff retreat that focuses on learning, strategy and fun. Finally, fellows end the fellowship year with a fall celebration where they also connect with new fellows who are just beginning their year. In all, fellows attend four retreats – three fellowship-related and one with all staff. Accommodations for remote participation are also available.
• Finding your career path. All fellows receive 1:1 goal-setting and coaching from The 19th’s director of fellowships, with support from people operations and very committed staff across the organization, including editor-at-large Errin Haines. Fellows also receive six months of coaching through Digital Women Leaders in the final three months of the fellowship and three months after the fellowship as they transition in their careers.
• Professional development. Like all 19th staff, fellows receive a professional development stipend and are encouraged to seek out growth and learning opportunities. Previous fellows have completed Coursera courses and attended journalism conferences and seminars.
• A bonus benefit. Fellows go through detailed and constructive performance reviews mid-fellowship to expose them to the process, so they are comfortable doing so in future roles. Fellows receive a one-time merit bonus once reviews are complete.

Job Requirements

Eligible candidates should be any one of the following:

• A recent graduate (within two years of graduation), early-career (three to four years’ experience) or mid-career alum (5-10 years’ experience) of a Historically Black College or University
• A graduating senior of a Historically Black College College or University with a graduation date prior to the anticipated fellowship start date of October 2025
• An individual who attended a Historically Black College or University for at least two years, and either transferred or did not graduate
• All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This can include conditional student/work visas, provided The 19th will not be required to take additional steps in sponsorship

Eligible candidates should also have the following:

• Some relevant experience in their chosen fellowship track
• A genuine interest in growing their career in journalism
• Alignment with The 19th’s values and community guidelines

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